111. Being Awakened in the Morning

The following is one of the instructions which Oyasama gave to Yoshie Iburi:

“Early rising, honesty, and work. There is a great difference in merit between being awakened and waking up someone else. Working in the shadows and praising others is honesty. If you do not put into practice what you hear, you will become a lie. Work on top of work, saying to yourself, ‘Just a little more, just a little bit more’; this is not greed, it is work that comes from true sincerity.”

54. Play It with All Your Heart

Yoshie Iburi had been learning the shamisen from Oyasama Herself since 1877, when Yoshie was twelve. During the three years of learning, Yoshie was also given instructions in spiritual attitude. Oyasama taught:

“You must get all the instruments at any cost.

“Even if you have not practiced enough, be seated in front of the instrument and play it with all your heart. God will accept your heart.

“Dear Yoshie, pluck ‘position three’ and ‘position two’ in succession. It makes a tune for hito-o-tsu.* In this way, practice the shamisen.”

53. From This Residence

One day in 1877, when Yoshie Iburi was twelve years old, her fingertips ached unbearably. She asked Oyasama what to do. Oyasama said to her:

“Learn to play the shamisen.*”

She decided to learn at once. However, in those days at Takashina in Ichinomoto there was no place to learn the shamisen. So she asked Oyasama, “Shall I go to Koriyama or some other place to learn?” Oyasama said to her:

“I am not sending you anywhere to learn, or inviting anyone to teach you. All things are to be learned in this Residence. There is nothing that can be learned from the world. Because it is first taught from this Residence, there is truth in what is learned.”

Oyasama personally taught her how to play the shamisen. This was to become the shamisen part for the Service.

* Shamisen: a three-stringed instrument similar to a lute which is plucked with a plectrum.

Note: Yoshie Iburi was married in 1888. Her married name was Yoshie Nagao.

The following is a translation of an excerpt from the writings of Eitaro Imamura (1894–1969), who held several positions throughout his career as a Honbu-jun’in (senior official of Tenrikyo Church Headquarters), such as superintendent of Aomori, Akita, Iwate, and Wakayama dioceses, president of Doyusha, head of Publications Approval Office, and first head minister of Jibun Branch Church. Continue reading Anecdotes of the Honseki Izo Iburi 67→

The following is an excerpt from Omichi no joshiki [Tenrikyo Fundamentals] (pp. 61–65) by Koji Sato (佐藤浩司), assistant professor at Tenri University and instructor at Tenri Seminary. Note: This translation is a provisional one at the moment and may require further revision.

Rising Early, Honesty, and Hard Work

Izo Iburi was an honest and hard worker, having the reputation in his neighborhood as a sincere person. He earned his living as a carpenter and was also praised for his work. He joined the faith in 1864 after his wife Sato was saved from severe complications resulting from a miscarriage.

It need not be mentioned that since Izo was the embodiment of “early rising, honesty, and hard work,” he took Oyasama’s words to heart and further committed himself to implementing them throughout his life. Yet, we may ask, why did Oyasama instruct Izo in this way?

* * *

Oyasama taught the lesson of “rising early, honesty, and hard work” to Izo’s eldest daughter Yoshie in the following manner:

Working hard out the sight of others and praising others is honesty. If you do not put into practice what you hear, you yourself will become a lie. If you continue to work, saying to yourself, ‘Just a little more, just a little bit more’; this is not greed, it is work that comes from true sincerity.

There is a proverb that says, “In spring one sleeps a sleep that knows no dawn.” Again, it is not very easy to get out of bed on in the morning on a cold day. Especially in our youth, our wish is to sleep even a minute or second longer.

In the west there is the well-known proverb “The early bird gets the worm.” There are similar proverbs in Japanese (“An early riser gains three mon“1) and in Chinese (“An early riser gains light from three sources—the Sun, the Moon, and the stars”).

In any case, the act of waking early in the morning is promoted as an effective means to bring about success. The reason why early rising has been promoted this way in the East and West, both past and present, is because of the reality that it is quite a difficult thing to accomplish.

There are some who insist that “asa-oki” (“rising early,” or literally “waking in the morning”) is different from “haya-oki” (“early rising”). By examining the Chinese character to write “asa” (朝, i.e., “morning”) we see that it is made up of a combination of other characters. We can interpret the character for morning to mean “the sufficiently (十) early (早) time when the Moon (月) looks bigger than the Sun (日).” Thus “asa-oki” as Oyasama meant it can be interpreted to waking when the Sun is about to rise. What do you think of my suggested interpretation?

* * *

A psalm that is often quoted says, “Many are the afflictions of the righteous.” There is also the general view that “Honesty does not pay.” Yet the problem of improprieties being committed by individuals working at government agencies and big businesses in recent years is a result of lies heaped atop one another. When the truth comes out, even a well-established company can make a negative about-turn and endure the misery of bankruptcy. As the proverb “God dwells in an honest man’s head” instructs us, it is better for us to live with righteousness and honesty.

But honesty does not simply end at being a frame of mind.

As Oyasama instructed, “If you do not put into practice what you hear, you yourself will become a lie,” the implementation of honesty in our daily life is important.

* * *

The path tells us that humans were born to work in this world. Oyasama taught we work (hataraku) in order to make things easier (raku) for those around us (hata).

People must work in order to make a living. But as the proverb says, “Man does not live on bread alone,” people work with different aspirations in mind. The concept of “work” or mutual help that Oyasama taught as a means “to make things easier for the people around us” was adopted from the path by the acclaimed “god of management” Konosuke Matsushita as his company motto when he founded Matsushita Electric.

* * *

As for the answer to the question I posed earlier on the possible reason why Oyasama taught the lesson of “rising early, honesty, and hard work” when Izo was already the embodiment of these qualities, She also taught the following lesson while holding a grain of unhulled rice:

The same is true with a human being. If you sow a grain of sincerity, within a year’s time, it will yield two to three hundred grains. In the second year there will be grains in the tens of thousands. The providence of a single grain returning ten-thousandfold will be granted. By the third year there will be enough to sow the entire province of Yamato.

I feel that Oyasama’s emphasis on the importance of “rising early, honesty, and hard work” is revealed to us by the fact that She taught this lesson using an unhulled grain of rice. This lesson is significant due to the very fact that Izo embodied these qualities on a daily basis.

24. Oyasama’s Protection After the Service for Rain

Masanosuke Iburi once asked his grandmother Yoshie Nagao, daughter of Izo, the following question, “Please tell me about the time when the Service for Rain was conducted during Oyasama’s physical lifetime.”

And Yoshie explained the event as follows:

“It was in the summer of 1883, when I was 18. There was a great drought, so great that the wells of every household completely dried up and both humans and farm animals were being affected by it. The farmers were particularly in a desperate situation. Even though they usually never gave us the time of day, they sent the village head as their representative to ask if a prayer for rain could be conducted as a final resort.